We recently had our third snow day for the year which slates us to extend our school year to include a half day on June 10, the Monday after our original last day of school. This is a bummer. And, to boot, there were 4 inches of fluffy snow, which finished falling well before the first yellow bus was scheduled to rumble out of the bus garage.
I’m glad that I’m not the one who has to make this decisions because its always easy to judge one way or another, but the bottom line is that our district really needs to figure out how to offer transportation for a 2-hour delay. We could have saved two snow days this way.
That being said, 35 degree days with four inches of fresh, fluffy snow and three little kids with cabin fever sparks my desire to venture outside. And I had grand plans of skating or skiing or sledding. Or, at the very least, working on the snow fort or building a snowman.
This Valentines day we had fresh warm muffins for breakfast, brought out our snow stuff and started to whine and cry about not wanting to go outside. Wait- what? Oh, yes. A chorus of cries from the cabin-fevered prisoners; a clan of five-and-unders wishing to remain inside to make messes and fight over toys rather than get fresh air and expend stored energy creating and imagining in the snow.
So, I did what every good mother does and forced them to go outside and have fun. Forced them to exercise their minds and bodies. Forced them to enjoy a questionable snow day. In the snow.
After a few minutes James and Natalie came around. They shoveled and climbed mountains and moved around big chunks of ice. They invited over the neighbors and played outside for three hours.
The small one, however, hates playing outside. After threatening to leave her inside alone she finally joined me. She wandered around watching her siblings for a hike before initiating a very convincing whine accompanied by constant request to go “Side! Side!” She took off her boots in favor of galoshes and stepped in the black, wet slush in the garage. Then she proceeded to complain about being cold.
Finally I took her inside to go potty and regroup. I offered bribed her with the Mai tei carrier and a sucker. She took the bait and I finished shoveling the driveway.
As soon as she finished her sucker, she began with a very convincing reverie, insisting that she needed to go “Potty! Potty!” I was on to her tomfoolery and reminded her she had just gone potty. “Potty again!” she insisted. I was able to finish the driveway without getting a wet back and caved to her insistent requests.
While she did not actually use the bathroom upon re-entering the house, she did stop making this unimpressed face, so I figured she was happy?
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Natalie put on her snow boots in the morning for school.
Think Big Much 